September Marketing Chatter: Google Lawsuit, New AI Extensions, and Apple's iOS 17
Marketing never stops moving. Wpromote's monthly Marketing Industry Chatter newsletter will keep you up-to-date on the biggest headlines, updates, and trends in the wide world of marketing and media—with the expert insights you need to take action.
Fall is finally here which means it's time to curl up in a cozy nook and dive deep into this month's biggest marketing headlines.
From Apple's latest iteration of iOS and Microsoft's new ad suite to Google Bard extensions and the end of the WGA strike, here's the breakdown of the most important industry news from September.
Apple launches iOS 17 and Link Tracking Protection
What you need to know:?Apple iOS 17 is now live, and offers Link Tracking Protection (LTP) as a new feature, which aims to enhance user privacy by removing marketing query parameters that track user activity on websites.
Any device with iOS 17 installed will remove key marketing tracking parameters that track user activity from links shared in Messages, Mail, or Safari Private Browsing Mode.
LTP will likely affect platform attribution, retargeting, personalization, and segmentation as well as disrupt offline conversion tracking. UTM parameters will not be affected.
What you need to do:?You should double-check non-platform tracking like UTMs, monitor your reporting to assess any changes, and, most importantly, look to embrace privacy-safe solutions like zero-party data collection and server-side tracking or enhanced conversions to pass first-party data back to ad platforms.
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DOJ’s Google antitrust lawsuit finally goes to trial
What you need to know:?Three years after the US Department of Justice filed its landmark antitrust lawsuit against Google, the case has finally gone to trial with opening arguments on September 12th.
The main focus of the case is whether or not Google violated antitrust laws when it paid Apple to be the iPhone’s default search engine.
This is the first significant attempt to rein in a major tech giant in a generation and it could have a significant impact on online advertising and the digital marketing industry as a whole. But it's not the last: the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) just sued Amazon in another landmark antitrust case.
What you need to do:?When it comes to search, Google is undeniably the leader of the pack. Regardless of the outcome of this trial, there will likely be major repercussions for the ad industry. If Google wins, competitors will have a hard time challenging the tech giant (and other powerhouses like Meta) for dominance. But a loss could mean that competitors like Bing will have a chance to finally grab a larger piece of the market.
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Microsoft introduces video and CTV Ads?
What you need to know:?Microsoft is ready to cash in on the booming digital video landscape: they have announced new additions to their advertising suite in the form of video and CTV ads.
Advertisers can now create video and CTV campaigns directly in Microsoft’s advertising platform and leverage Microsoft’s first-party data for targeting.
Ads are served across Microsoft’s sites, publisher partners, and connected TV in the US, including on MSN, CNN, Hulu, People, The Washington Post, and more.
What you need to do:?If you’re wondering what sets Microsoft’s offering apart, it’s the tech company’s access to billions of first-party data points, which will make it easier to pinpoint target audiences with the right ads. This is happening at a time when spend in programmatic digital video advertising is on the rise, so consider testing into the new capabilities.
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Google’s Bard now has access to G Suite
What you need to know:?Bard, Google’s entry into the AI race, can now pull data from YouTube, Google Flights, Google Maps, Google Drive, Google Docs, and Gmail through Bard Extensions, Google’s new offering.
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No personal content won’t be used to train the Bard model, nor will it be viewed by any humans at Google or used to show you ads. You need to grant Bard permission to access your data and can unlink access at any time.
Users can also double-check the accuracy of Bard’s answers in the platform by finding content that's similar to or different from its statements.
What you need to do:?Google is looking to respond to complaints about inaccuracies in Bard’s answers that surfaced at launch as well as find innovative uses for the gen AI tech. At this time, there are no plans to monetize these new capabilities for ads, but they will be pulling from organic content on YouTube and other parts of the Google ecosystem.
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TikTok measurement will now use a self-attributing network
What you need to know:?TikTok wants more credit for the sales that come from its platform, so it is shifting to a self-attributing network (SAN), similar to Meta’s measurement solutions, for in-platform reporting
The new solution will be less focused on last-click attribution, allowing marketers to see “view through” data, so they can understand when views contributed to a conversion, even if an ad doesn’t get the last click before purchase.
TikTok plans to transition all advertisers to the SAN by March 2024, with legacy Mobile Measurement Partner (MMP) deprecated at a later date.
What you need to do:?You can expect to see higher conversion rates on TikTok ads as a result of this change, but there is a larger concern that TikTok is shifting toward a walled garden approach, which raises questions around accuracy because there will be less transparency into measurement. That also exacerbates concerns over data use by TikTok’s Chinese-owned parent company, ByteDance.
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The writers' strike is ending, but it’s not back to normal yet
What you need to know:?The Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) have finally reached a deal after 146 days on strike, though the Guild still needs to vote on the final contract.
For advertisers hoping to get back to business as usual on TV, the future is not yet clear: the actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA, is still on strike.?
According to an Innovid survey in August, 73% of brand and agency professionals said that the dual Hollywood strikes would impact their advertising plans, but the long-term implications are still unclear.
What you need to do:?The end of the writers' strike is good news for advertisers who have been anxiously anticipating a steep drop off of new TV content across both streaming and linear. But until the actors come to a deal, production will remain at a standstill, so don’t solely rely on TV. Keep diversifying your media mix to find new ways to connect with customers.
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September Featured Content
Holiday Hustle: Last-Minute Tactics to Win Q4
No doubt your marketing strategy is fully prepared for the Q4 rush, and you’re probably already hard at work filling the upper and mid-funnel and running test campaigns.
But what if there were some actionable steps you could take right now to ensure you blow your goals out of the water and supercharge your results this holiday season?
Our experts are sharing the ten last-minute tactics you can deploy to maximize your Q4 success and win this holiday season.